Discovery of ‘how and why’ homochirality emerges receives 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Molecules such as amino acids exist as two mirrored variants that are each other’s image, but living organisms contain only one of these mirror images. The “how and why” chemical asymmetry spontaneously arises was a long-standing mystery to chemists, but Kagan and Soai cracked the code—and yes, it involves optical effects.
Chemists wanted to create only one of these mirrored images, because it’s desired when developing molecules that go into pharmaceuticals—life’s chemistry is homochiral, a.k.a. same-handed.
In 1986, Kagan discovered how to manipulate chemical reactions to create a greater excess of one mirror image. And in 2003, Soai designed a homochiral chemical reaction in which only one of the two possible mirror images was formed. This feat was a first outside of life itself.
The duo’s discovery of how and why homochirality emerges—and making chemistry choose a mirror image—helps chemists develop better pharmaceuticals today.
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Sally Cole JohnsonSally Cole Johnson
Editor in Chief
Sally Cole Johnson is Laser Focus World’s editor in chief, and she has more than 25 years’ experience as a science and technology journalist. She specializes in physics and semiconductors, and wrote for the American Institute of Physics for more than 15 years, and also covered theoretical physics and neuroscience for the Kavli Foundation, and complexity for the Santa Fe Institute. Johnson has also written extensively about military embedded systems, high-performance computing, software-defined networks, and infosec. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers (since 2001).
When she isn’t writing about optics, photonics, or quantum advances, you can find her outside in northern NH in the garden with birds landing in her hand or heading for the mountains with her bike, skis, or crampons and ice axe.